Maybe Fox News’ Todd Starnes Has a Creepy Thing for Michelle Obama

Todd Starnes is a radio host for Fox News Radio, a frequent guest for Fox News shows, and a columnist for – you’ll never guess – FoxNews.Com. He’s also a prolific Twitter user and Facebook updater. Like his colleagues, he’s an unapologetic liar, an open misogynist and a barely hidden racist. Oh, and while some conservative Christians don’t trust him and call him on his bs, he received the Board of Directors Award from the National Religious Broadcasters. The award “is designed to encourage excellence in production service to the community, faithfulness to the mission, commitment to the Gospel, and personal integrity.”

Oh, and judging by his Twitter feed, Mr. Todd Starnes really has a thing for the First Lady of the United States, Ms. Michelle Obama. Not in a healthy way, either. He’s obsessed. If you may, take a journey with me (Trigger Warnings for all sorts of assholeness). Shall we look at the evidence?

Mr. Starnes likes to know where Ms. Obama is all the time and where she’s going. He takes pride in the myth that he’s paying for the Obama’s vacays. A sort of pride I doubt he made a deal out of during the last administration. It’s kinda stalkerish, really.

Now, some may look at the obvious-but-sideways attraction that Todd Starnes has for the first black First Lady of the United States and draw the conclusion that there is yet hope for humanity under the idea that sexual attraction equals love. But it surely doesn’t. As feminist writer bell hooks put it, “There can be no love without justice.” And to Todd Starnes, Michelle Obama is two steps below a person, deplorable un-equal.

Obama is a woman. And to the patriarchy, and particularly misogynists like Starnes, that means she is already less than human. To misogynists, women serve largely as sexual objects and baby-making machines. They are not intelligent, whole beings with wills and control over their own bodies. This is why conservatives fight so hard against Equal Rights Amendments, against feminism, against reproductive rights, against equal pay and full medical coverage. Women are not to be trusted, they say, unless they conform to the stereotype, the boxed-in woman. And even then, they are not to be trusted or respected. Women are emotional and rash and don’t know what’s best for them. That is why men must make their healthcare choices for them.

Now, combine that with the fact that Ms.* Obama is black. And here we come into some more ludicrousness. Because the White Supremacist sees the black person as a mere brute, an animal – and a particularly sexual one. The black male is seen as a threat to the white male’s hold over his white female counterpart. We are reminded of the scene from the KKK propaganda film The Birth of a Nation, where the savage black male preys a white woman until she jumps off a cliff and the noble Klan comes to exact revenge. This is the reason for the lynch laws of the land – Emmit Till, for instance – and was one of the primary charges used by White Supremacists against Trayvon Martin. I was told several times by white men that Trayvon’s offense was peering into white women’s windows (no proof notwithstanding). The black man, to the White Supremacist, is a constant threat against the sexuality of the white man.

The black woman, however, is viewed as the unattainable object of sexual desire. All Women of Color are viewed by the White Supremacist as exotic, as exciting and new objects. Black women – because they are doubly viewed as less-than-human – are seen as highly sexualized objects for racist white male lust. This is the relationship of Thomas Jefferson who supposedly “loved” Sally Hemings. This was the relationship of Southern Gentlemen in the Slave Holding South to the black enslaved women whose lives they “owned.” White Supremacists (and Todd Starnes is a White Supremacist) believe that they should still own human beings as property and are jealous of the fact that a highly intelligent, strong, engaged black woman is so successful in front of the world. And so they are awfully confused.

Notice that a black woman’s body is always under the microscope in popular culture and dissected disapprovingly. Beyonce’s outfits and body were subject to white male criticism during her Super Bowl performance in ways the male athletes (whose clothing is even tighter) or male rockers (who often, mind you, wear cod pieces) never are. If she had dressed more conservatively, would that have mattered? Again, we refer back to Ms. Obama.

But make no mistake, the kind of confused frustration that these men take out on Ms. Obama are not only directed at her and are not just existential. There are policies and practices kept in place that have a direct and hard effect on women of color. Just over a fourth of black women live in poverty in the US (and Latina women trail just behind by 1.5 percentage points). And the Starneses of the US would like to increase those numbers if they can.

We must resist.

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*Notice that Starnes makes a point of using the “Mrs.” title, which only works for women. Men have no such designation to identify them as married or single. Because men are not seen as property to be marked as such.

When he’s not riding both his city’s public transit system and evil mayor, Jasdye teaches at a community college and writes about the intersection of equality and faith - with an occasional focus on Chicago - at the Left Cheek blog and on the Left Cheek: the Blog Facebook page. Check out more from Jasdye in his archives as well!